Autism and Parents with Psychiatric Disorders
May 5, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The risk of having an autistic child is doubled if a parent has schizophrenia or if a mother has psychiatric problems (depression, personality disorders), according to a study published in Pediatrics. From Reuters via WNED.org:
The study of families in Sweden with children born between 1977 and 2003 involved 1,227 children diagnosed with autism. They were compared with families of nearly 31,000 children who did not have autism. Sweden’s detailed health registry provides a wealth of data for such studies.
…..
The association between a child’s autism and mental illness in the parent was strongest with schizophrenia, and was less powerful when the mother suffered from depression or personality disorders. There was little association between autism and parental addiction to alcohol or drugs or some other types of mental illness.It was not clear if it was significant that having a mother, but not a father, with certain mental illnesses, raised the risk of autism.
Interesting—once autism was called childhood schizophrenia.
as a momma with anxiety–from OCD to pretty significant social anxiety–this is no surprise to me.
This shows me that the way we label difference is arbitrary.
At least as for depression, one has to wonder which came first, the depression or the mother learning that her child had autism and responding by becoming depressed?
In our families, we have pathological OCD, depression, ADHD, schizphrenic disorder, and anxiety (by pathological, I mean “medically diagnosed”), in addition to autism. I’ve described before how I believe that these are all part of a symphony of traits, some louder than others in a particular individual. The way we label difference may not so much be arbitrary as it is empasizing whichever instrument appears to be playing loudest. As for the physiology of any of this, I would say, a la All the President’s Men, follow the dopamine.
I have depression and am also being treated for anxiety and both of my both have autism.
In regards to which came first? I would say in my case, the depression was there. I didn’t seek help until another family crisis occurred.
One can see where this is going. Once the idea that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients had mental health issues started circulating in the medical community, the credibility of the patients and their search for answers was destroyed and the whole epidemic was swept under the rug for two decades. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome became a joke on late night talk shows.
Now when parents of autistic children get uppity and ask the wrong questions or know a little too much, members of the medical community can just wink at each other and think, well the parents are all crazy so let’s just humor them. And now in addition to dealing with society’s attitude toward their children, the parents will have the additional burden and stigma of their own suspected mental illness.
This is a very ominous development in a very political epidemic. Some parents of autistic children seem to already accuse each other of being crazy if they disagree about anything. Now they will have some ammunition. But of course, it can be used against them too.
My ex is paranoid schizophrenic. On top of the autism my kids have a 50% chance of becoming schizo in their teens or 20s.
I have also read of connections to alzheimer’s. My maternal grandmother and her sister both died of Alzheimer’s.
A good book is the Family Manual on Schizophrenia:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art33264.asp
Discovery Channel did a week-long special in 2001 called Fires of the Mind. One was on Schizophrenia and another on autism
http://ffh.films.com/id/4206/Dark_Voices_Schizophrenia.htm
http://ffh.films.com/id/4209/The_Invisible_Wall_Autism.htm
they are also available at this library:
http://www.acfamsupport.org/library.html
Here is some info regarding connection of autism and alzheimers as I mentioned in previous comment that is probably awaiting moderation due to links:
“The NIDS Research Institute, which consists of the NIDS Parents Coalition and the NIDS Scientific Board, is dedicated to increasing the public’s awareness of the likely connection between neuro-immune and/or auto-immune dysfunction and conditions such as Autism, ADD, Alzheimer’s, ALS, CFS/CFIDS, MS and other immune- mediated diseases”
http://www.nids.net/
Neuro Immune Dysfunction Syndromes Medical Advisory Board and Research Institute
How do you interpret statistics? Reading the abstract or writeups in various science blogs you would think that schizophrenia is rampant in the family history of autistic children. The facts published in the original rticle offer another interpretation.
Of the 2500 parents of autistic children, 8 mothers had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 8 fathers has a schizophrenia diagnosis. 15 out of 2500 parents, statistically very slightly higher than the 1% of the general population who are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Here is the table in the actual article published in Pediatrics.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content-nw/full/121/5/e1357/T2
Here is the entire article which Pediatrics has allowed free online access to .
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/121/5/e1357
Out of 2500 parents of autistic children who carried a diagnosis of schizophrenia there were only 15, 7 mothers and 8 fathers. That comes out out to less than one percent which is actually lower than the 1% rate of schizophrenia in the general population, but twice as high as the control group in the Swedish study.
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/004789.html
Here again is another example of the wrong control groups used in comparison. The correct control group should be familial schizophrenia prevelance in autism parents compared to parental schizophrenia prevelance in in schizophrenic people.
Chance alone can explain this tenous but widely accepted association
statistically very slightly higher than the 1% of the general population who are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
——————————-
1/100. Gee, that’s a familiar number. Are we having an epidemic of schizophrenia?
There used to be a term called dementia praecox, which was sometimes used for schizophrenia, but was also kind of an -NOS term, as in, we think you’re crazy, but we’re not really sure what it is or what to do about it. Terms and definitions seem to be changed alot easier than that which they identify.
I got a heads-up on some of the plans for revamping the DSM-V, and some of those personality “disorders” may change, so if you are looking at these kinds of definitional studies, save the specific criteria now so you don’t compare apples to pineapples later.
I have had depression since I was a kid with stress-related anxiety later, and our collected families have a healthy scoop of what would be termed mental disorders, so that our girls have disorders is not the happiest outcome, but not entirely unexpected either.
As far as having it used against me, as in blame, speculated by H6–someone can try, but that makes as much sense as using the higher probabilities of Huntington’s, some cancers, and other disorders against someone. For it being a “mental” disorder, than a strictly “physical” one. Sans fait rien. I see enough quizzical behavior from everyone to make life one old cabaret for sure. I hope that we’ve advanced further than the blame game of yesteryear.I we haven’t, well, (shrugs shoulders).
ditto to everything Emily listed in our families—–and, oui, sans fait rien.
Regan, I think that especially we will see some serious revamping in the DSM-V of what is now called “schizophrenia” and of a lot of other disorders related to dopamine signaling. I’m starting to act like I’m perseverating on dopamine, but the fact is that much of what’s in the DSM-IV about many disorders sounds like a lot of nonsense in the context of the numerous dopamine-related findings that have been made since its publication. That applies to schizophrenia-related disorders, ADD/ADHD, Parkinson’s, addictive behavioral disorders/substance-abuse disorders…and probably more that I can’t remember off the top of my head.
On an interesting but not really related note, wathc for Internet addiction to arrive.
I had another comment here that I tried to post again as I did not see it and it said duplicate, but it is not here? It had several links to discovery health films that were on schizophrenia and autism back in 2001. Maybe the email for moderation is in bulk mail?
Emily, perseverate away. Some more biologically based theory and markers would be useful.
The part that slightly concerned me in one review of future changes was some post-modern discussion of political considerations in a future DSM. Whether that was going to lead to more specific definition for a future update or extraneous factors to further muddy the waters was difficult to tell. Since I don’t have any personal input except to see what emerges in 2012, I’ll prefer to hope that the better specifics you note, prevail.
@Bonnie,
It’s those URLs—they send your comments into the SPAM filter. Sorry and let me know when it happens again (as I suspect it will, given past experience).
I joined the NIDS group and realized it is not what I thought and learned there is some Dr. Goldberg in Los Angeles many see. I never knew about this and learning about what is in my area, although not for my family.
Also to consider: The diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children increased 40% from 1994-2003.
There used to be a comedian that claimed mental illness is heriditary – i.e. parents inherit it from their children.
So which actually comes first? Correlations rarely provide a clear cause and effect relationship.
This does not surprise me at all. M has genetic predisposition on both birth parent sides. I also know that Bipolar Disorder can be very confusing to distinguish from Autism at a young age.
The study found that a the mental illness in most of the parents (I have to go find the number) was there, not on the mental illness but the official diagnosis, was there before the child was born.
Look how easy it is to demonize autistic kids as being the blame for their parent’s problems. If we said that crazy parents abused their kids and neglected them emotionally there’d be an uproar of “oh!!! No!!! not again!!! not Bettelheim!!!! it’s not the parents’ fault!!!!” But some people are more than happy to say that having an “autistic” child is enough to cause a psychotic break, or depression or anxiety in a parent who otherwise would not have had such.
That’s sick.
Let’s forget that there are some common genes implicated in both autism and schizophrenia. Let’s pretend that’s totally not true and lets blame the kids for making their parents crazy.
Children were considered case subjects if they were
born between 1977 and 2003 and had a diagnosis of autism disorder, Asperger syndrome, or pervasive developmental disorder not-otherwise-specified at or before 10 years of age that was recorded in the registry between 1987 and 2003 (see Appendix for ICD classification).
——-
Oh yeah, raising a PDD,nos or Asperger’s kid is just enough to drive one to psychosis. These were not all the Autism Speaks’ version of “autism” where the kid does nothing but scream all day long.
A good number of them were likely like my kid. Impaired, disabled. Lots of issue. Special Ed…. but a total joy to parent. A happy, practically blissed-out kid.
Charlie the same—happy and certainly loved from all sides (and probably sighing over having to put up with two parents always running crazily around).
@Dan Doonan,
Jim has a long-time friend who likes to say of certain individuals that they “chose their parents well.”
Thank you, Kristina. The way I worded it it sounded like I agreed that “autistic” kids are more trouble than PDD,nos or Asperger’s kids.
Truth is, my typical kid was way more “high maintenance” in many ways than my ASD kid was. The typical kid would say, “Maaa-aahm, I want this. I want that… Maaa-aaahm.” Not in like monstrous brat, but the way typical kids do. My typical kid was naughty and would disobey me like typical kids do. My ASD kid was totally compliant and happy with whatever was offered, basically.
The positive association between any parental psychiatric disorder and the child’s diagnosis of autism was present regardless of the timing of the parent’s diagnosis
relative to the child’s diagnosis (Table 3). The ORs for autism were slightly higher if the parent had been diagnosed before the child’s diagnosis or before the child’s birth, rather than after.
——-
The largest Odds Ratio I saw was for older fathers. That was much bigger effect than for being mentally ill.
Mercury is a nuerotoxin and aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer’s. Fuoride is a strong neurotoxin that could also conceiveably play a part in mental health, even autism. Here is one study that links higher fluoride levels to lower IQ’s:
EFFECT OF HIGH-FLUORIDE WATER
ON INTELLIGENCE IN CHILDREN
SUMMARY: The Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was measured in 118 children, aged
10-12 years, who were life-long residents in two villages of similar population
size and social, educational and economic background but differing in the
level of fluoride in drinking water. The children in the high-fluoride area
(drinking water fluoride 3.15 ± 0.61 mg/L [ppm]) (mean ± S.D.) had higher uri-
nary fluoride levels (4.99 ± 2.57 mg/L) than the children in the low-fluoride area
(drinking water fluoride 0.37 ± 0.04 mg/L) (urinary fluoride 1.43 ± 0.64 mg/L).
The IQ of the 60 children in the high-fluoride area was significantly lower,
mean 92.27 ± 20.45, than that of the 58 children in the low-fluoride area, mean
103.05 ± 13.86. More children in the high-fluoride area, 21.6%, were in the re-
tardation (<70) or borderline (70-79) categories of IQ than children in the low
fluoride area, 3.4%. An inverse relationship was also present between IQ and
the urinary fluoride level. Exposure of children to high levels of fluoride may
therefore carry the risk of impaired development of intelligence.
Please research fluoride and mental health to learn more about the toxins in our environment that is most likely playing a roll in much of the mental related problems in the USA, Canada, and UK these days. (only 3 major countries that still fluoridate water these days, rest found it was rat poison and stopped)
Ms. Clark, I have had similar experiences.
FWIW, I have two sons on the spectrum and husband with psychosis (delusional disorder paranoid subtype) which started in his late thirties. If it happened earlier it would probably end up being diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia since, to be honest, I find psychosis diagnosis to be rather fluid… Not unlike ASD diagnosis…
However, both my husband and myself would also be likely to qualify for Asperger’s. His family also does seem to have a history of personality disorders.
I participate in the support group for relatives of people with delusional disorder and among approximately 100 families there are two other families to match this pattern, parent with DD and child with autism.
So, yes, I buy that there might be genetic link. FWIW, I find my children’s autism walk in the park compared to dealing with my husband’s psychosis. He simply does not live in the same reality that I do anymore, by his own admission his life is hell and he would rather be dead and to be honest I am not sure he’ll ever again find peace in this life. Ironically, delusional disorder seems to be everything “Autism Speaks” claims autism is…
Tara, I’m sorry about your situation. How hard that must be, for both of you. For all of you.
@Tara,
Wow, that’s a lot—too much.
I have my own “issues” and then a year go, we were living with my in-laws—both of whom have psychiatric disorders. Anxiety, severe depression, panic attacks in MIL; my FIL has never been diagnosed.
Taking care of Charlie was much easier and Charlie was the best with his grandparents—he’d even try to jump in bed with them (they weren’t too thrilled—he just thought he was being funny—he was—and showing how much he liked them).
@ Emily, Kristina
Thank you both. Yes, it is a lot, but I have been past dwelling on “why me” aspect for quite some time… I simply try to keep things going and live each day as close to normality as possible.
There is a silver lining in the fact that both boys are doing quite well and at this point I have every reason to expect them to be able to live independently one day.
From Translating Autism:
My husbands bipolar…. I’ve never heard of it and asd being confused…. ADHD & depression, yes, as mana looks like hyperactivity or irritability in a child.. ADHD, however, is not on the spectrum though I’ve read clinical studies suggest a high rate of comorbidity (though the current DSM doesn’t apparently allow for it in diagnosis…)
Er mania, not mana
I find the mention of huntingtons interesting as well. It runs in my husbands family. His m grf had alzheimers…
This article doesn’t surprise me. I used to work with children on the Autism Spectrum and a good percentage of the parents were neurotic. Many were convinced that pediatricians, specialists, and of course us therapists were plotting against them.
The parents are under incredible amounts of stress and the mind can do some crazy things when stressed.
One concern of mine as a therapist was always the parents well-being, afterall, if one member of a family is stressed, every member of a family is stressed. Autistic children receive wonderful therapies, but sometimes the parents are forgotten. They too need therapy to deal with all of the changes a diagnosis can bring in addition to sharing a house with a child that obsesses about shapes, refuses to eat, cannot transition, perseverates on wheels, head-bangs, echoes what is said, appears to have no understanding of language or its function, just to name a few.
I certainly hope that more research is done in this area.